Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Louis XIV:
Current world record holder for longest reign!
Quick synopsis:
A biography of Louis XIV of France, the Sun King.
Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like:
Guess how Louisiana got named? Yup, this guy.
He is the longest reigning monarch of all time (72 years, 110 days). Queen Elizabeth is 5 years behind him.
He outlived his son. And grandson. He had to be succeeded by his great-grandson. High marks for his longevity. Probably kind of say though.
He cried a lot. Must be a French thing (zinger!).
Fun Fact for History Nerds:
Louis XIV is hilarious to compare to Henry VIII. He had mistresses constantly in his youth but only two wives. He didn’t have to kill any of them!
My Take on Louis XIV:
Usually, 400 pages means you are getting a pretty in-depth treatment of the subject. Not here though and it’s not a bad thing!
Wilkinson is fantastic at working her way through Louis’s life without getting too bogged down. Since Louis decided to have a super long reign this book ends up being much more of a high-level summary than an in-depth biography. And much of Louis’s life had to do with his love life more than anything else, but Wilkinson still hits all the big events of his life as well. By the end, you do feel like you know Louis on personal level, even though that was absolutely impossible during his life. The dude took the whole “king” thing to another level.
Verdict:
Great book on a very important subject. There are not many contemporary books on Louis and this doesn’t disappoint. Buy it here!
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